Bob Bromley

Thanks to the Minister for those remarks. Unfortunately, this Assembly is becoming known as one that studies problems rather than deals with them. I really hope that the Minister will take the lead in working with his colleagues in addressing the situation and committing… First of all, will he commit to finding out the extent of the problem and why our food banks are failing, and people do not have food on their table despite all the programs mentioned.

No further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Snow is on the ground and the land and waterways are freezing up. While some of us may grumble about the onset of winter, there are many of us that are celebrating. Snow is a playing field for many Northerners. The Yellowknife Nordic Centre is just such a playing field, and many Yellowknifers are waxing their skis to get going once again in the sports of skiing and biathlon.

This Saturday the Yellowknife Ski Club is kicking off the new season with the Annual Snow Show. From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. the chalet will be a hive of activity as people sign up for programs, get...

Thank you, Madam Chair. That’s all the questions I have. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment. I would look forward to any information he could provide on that.

Like I said, I believe it was done early to midterm in the 16th Assembly, if my memory is correct, which there are no guarantees. Thank you.

So let’s see, it’s currently $2.5 million and we are adding a little bit more than .5, so something like a 20 percent increase here. When was the last time this was increased?

This Minister, I know, has some history and knowledge about the back and forth between public servants and contracting out these services. I wonder if he could remind me of what that has been and what our current thinking is. Thank you.

Thank you, again, for those remarks from the deputy minister. That sounds reasonable to me. I know that this will take a little time to put in place, and I would think it would take even longer to do an evaluation. I just appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and make sure that that evaluation process is in place. That’s all the questions I had.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wonder if I could just get an explanation. I see there are a number of transactions related to the implementation of financial shared services. I believe that this is an opportunity for increased efficiency and, ultimately, lower operations costs. This is sort of related to the previous one we had – $436,000 – where various departments have expenses listed. I wonder if I could just get an explanation.

Again, are we further ahead? Are there efficiencies and savings related to these new expenditures for shared financial services? Just a brief explanation overview would...

Thank you. Sounds like a worthy project. I wonder, do we have any estimates of what efficiency this would gain over the normal course of events and/or do we plan to install monitoring so that we can learn valuable lessons and collect useful data on which to base future similar decisions? Thank you.

That’s all I had. One last request, I guess. I want to thank the Minister for those comments, once again, and just ask if he would bring forward a report, a briefing on lessons learned, say by this spring or winter session, and how we’re better prepared to handle things when the next outbreak occurs. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I assume from the responses so far that, in fact, we have had no input to that agreement with China, that bilateral agreement. The Quebec government has invited comments from its citizens to add the public voice to its opposition or input. This government has announced its intention to consult the public on a new economic development strategy.

Will the Premier ensure that any consultation on new Cabinet policy invites our citizens to state their views on the need for local preference policies, and in the meantime express our concerns to the federal government over the...